How the Toyota Board Engineered a Comeback from Its Recall Crisis

Boardroom Conversations with Fexingo: CEOs, Strategy, and Corporate Leadership Explained · May 29, 2026 · 8m · transcript

In 2010, Toyota faced its worst crisis in decades: a recall of over 8 million vehicles due to unintended acceleration, and a board that had grown insular and overconfident. This episode drills into how Toyota's board restructured itself—bringing in outside directors, creating a crisis oversight committee, and embedding quality control into governance. We look at the specific changes: the adoption of a North American-style committee structure, the appointment of outsiders like former GE executive James E. Press, and the creation of a 'Quality Improvement Committee' that reported…